


A Study of the Classics

by Fericita



Series: When All Is Lost [31]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Frozen 2 - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24665221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita
Summary: Iduna and Thea are distracted during tea time.
Relationships: Agnarr & Iduna (Disney), Agnarr/Iduna (Disney)
Series: When All Is Lost [31]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571230
Comments: 23
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you The Spastic Fantastic for being the best beta and for the title for this piece, among other amazing contributions.

Gerda set a tray down on the table in front of Thea and Iduna, neither of whom noticed. The ice clinked gently as it settled in the pitcher of water, the tea was steaming, and the skoleboller was beautifully made with shaved coconut sprinkled along the sides of the buns like the first flakes of snow on the castle roof in winter. Gerda looked from one woman to the other, both of their gazes fixed on the open grassy area below this stretch of balcony. She straightened up, failed to suppress a smile, and said “Your Majesty, Lady Calder, your tea.”

Iduna startled, as if caught doing something unqueenly, and put a hand to her chest. “Oh! Oh, thank you Gerda.”

“Do you need anything else?” Gerda looked at Thea, who still had not moved, though her mouth was opened slightly as she continued to look out on the field.

“Hmmm?” Thea turned to look at Gerda. “Oh, we’re quite set. Thank you so much.”

Gerda turned to leave and Iduna poured the tea, handing Thea a cup.

Thea nodded in thanks. “Thank you for the tour of the skerries today. We hadn’t been out since before Sasha was born.” She absentmindedly dropped a sugar cube in her tea, then another two, then four, then began to stir her tea with the sugar tongs. 

“It was a treat for us as well. Thank you for suggesting your nanny watch both of the girls. It’s so rare to be away from Elsa, even now that she’s weaned. I feel so….” Iduna searched for the word, setting her tea cup down and deciding that ice water was more in order. “Relaxed.”

“It was fascinating to see the new aquaculture project the academy students are managing.” Thea took a sip of her tea and grimaced at the unexpected sweetness. 

“Yes, the brown salmon are doing very well. These skerries are an ideal location. The enclosures are protected from the greater sea, but still provide a natural environment.” Iduna gulped her water and then brought the cool glass to her flushed cheek to feel the ice. “And of course, the scenery is quite pleasant.”

“Yes, the scenery is most pleasing,” Thea agreed. “At the skerries.”

“Agnarr hopes to import some rainbow trout from Denmark to begin the aquaculture in ponds next. That’s why we’re hosting the ball for the Danish delegation next month.”

“Oh yes, I almost have my dress finished,” Thea said, reaching for a bun and then hitting her nose with it as she tried to bring it to her mouth. She brushed the coconut flakes off with a napkin. 

“I don’t think I have one made yet,” said Iduna, sounding very unconcerned. 

“What. What exactly are they wearing?” Thea asked in a strangled whisper.

“To the ball?” Iduna looked at her in confusion, worried that her inattention to the conversation was too obvious. But Thea was looking down at their husbands, facing each other in the grass, barefoot and in shorts. Their striped shirts were tight across their chests and sleeveless, revealing arms visibly shiny with sweat and flexed in exertion and shoulders heaving in effort even from their vantage point on the balcony.

“No, now. Right now. What is that? What are they wearing?”

“They’re…” Iduna coughed. “Uniforms. It provides for range of motion.”

Thea was silent, staring. Iduna continued. “Agnarr ordered them made for the academy. Lord Hannesel encouraged him to provide opportunities and a curriculum for physical training as well as intellectual.”

Thea nodded, eyes still on her husband who had just shouted triumphantly as he flipped Agnarr onto his back on the grass. “Yes, it makes sense. For health purposes.”

Iduna watched as Agnarr leapt to his feet and ran into Elias with his head down, catching him in his gut, their thighs strained with the effort of remaining upright. “It’s all the rage right now on the continent in the all male schools. But really, it goes back to ancient Greece.”

“Oh? So it’s classical?”

“Only in ancient Greece they were naked,” Iduna said as Thea choked on her tea. “Obviously, we can’t do that.”

“Obviously.” Thea coughed. 

Iduna took a deep breath as Agnarr pinned Elias to the ground and then extended his hand to help him back to his feet. The two men immediately grabbed each other - hands behind necks, heads ducked and driven into the chest of the other. The grunts of exertion echoed off of the castle walls.

“It's so vigorous. What...exactly does it teach?” Thea took a sip of her tea, the sweetness unnoticed since it mostly dribbled out of the corner of her mouth. 

Iduna didn’t notice. She also didn’t notice the flakes of coconut and crumbs from the skoleboller that fell in her lap and down into her glass of water. “Dexterity. Stamina. Sportsmanship.”

“Yes. Very important. I noticed those attributes.” Thea nodded. The men had now shuffled underneath the balcony and Thea was currently angling herself in a strange contortion, trying to see them.

“I believe next week Agnarr plans to do this again. With Elias,” Iduna said as the men emerged from under the balcony, laughing and punching each other lightly in the arm. They both dropped and began to do push-ups, and Thea and Iduna straightened in their chairs, leaning forward to see them better.

“Perhaps next week I'll bring my paints out to capture the lovely blooms,” Iduna said, gesturing to the snow buttercups nearby that neither had looked at once since sitting down.

“I learned to paint the human form at finishing school. I could bring my set as well,” Thea said, abandoning her tea cup to grip the railing.

“Oh wonderful, I would love the company. And perhaps since you paint the human form, we could suggest the men wrestle without their shirts.”

Thea tilted her head, watching as Elias shouted “Thirty!” and continued his push-ups. 

“Yes, it would help me. In making an accurate representation.”

“And of course it would be more accurate for them. True to wrestling from ancient Greece.”

“Accuracy, so important,” Thea agreed. “And the classics are so neglected.”

Below, the men collapsed on the grass and rolled onto their backs.

“We can hear you!” Elias shouted. “We can hear what you’re saying!”

Agnarr sat up and peeled his shirt off, using it to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “And we can see you too. Iduna, you have more of that skoleboller in your lap than you’ve got in your mouth,” he said with a grin.

Iduna and Thea exchanged looks and sat primly in their chairs, brushing crumbs and dabbing at their mouths with napkins.

“I have no idea what you mean,” Iduna said, hands now folded neatly in her lap, her back as straight at the turret above. 

“We’ve been speaking of aquaculture and the Danish delegation,” said Thea, similarly seated as if she was back at finishing school.

The men disappeared from view for a moment before reappearing on the balcony, chests heaving with the effort of scaling the stairs so quickly, and when Gerda walked in behind them with a tray of more food and ice water, she slowly backed out again, leaving the young couples to their laughter and half-clothed hugs.


	2. A Summer Swim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thea and Iduna love their husbands to distraction. This story is linked here thematically to chapter 1, but time-wise would take place within the story "The Sky Will be Blue." 
> 
> The royal family hosts friends at the Royal Sommerhus for a summer-time swim.

Iduna dipped her paintbrush into the lemonade, then made a few haphazard strokes on the mostly blank canvas Next to her, Thea bit on the wooden end of her paintbrush hard enough to leave tooth marks, looking towards the lake.

Perhaps ‘pond’ was a better name for it, this small swimming hole tucked away at the edge of the Royal Sommerhus grounds, nestled at the bottom of the mountain which was impossibly snow capped at the very top. Iduna shielded her eyes with her hands, wishing the breeze would blow more consistently off of the fjord. 

She was feeling rather hot. 

Usually, Elsa would cool the air for them when the summer sun became too much. But with the Calder family and Hubert, a Belgian official and close friend of Agnarr’s, visiting for the week, Elsa had mostly abandoned her use of icy magic.

Agnarr woke early to take Elsa for walks in the woods so she could make ice birds and flowers, her careful recreations of the forest life something he would tell Iduna of in the privacy of their room. Iduna smiled to think how proud and excited he was, how amazed at the level of detail Elsa could conjure out of nothing more than her imagination and observation. 

Agnarr and Elsa always returned by breakfast and no one seemed to think these trips strange. Anna was so thrilled about friends to play with she hadn’t begged Elsa for the usual snow drifts for sliding and making snowballs and building snowmen. Or perhaps she implored Elsa to do the magic at night. They shared a room and Iduna wouldn’t know what went on after bedtime as Agnarr had her otherwise occupied in those hours.

Iduna fanned herself with the paintbrush, startling as droplets of liquid came off the brush. 

“How is yours coming along?” Iduna asked, not looking at Thea’s canvas.

Thea lowered her brush, dipping it in the pot of blue on the table they shared. She swirled it in the paint, smoothing and mixing where the sun had hardened the top layer.

“Oh fine. Very fine,” Thea answered, not looking at it either.

The sound of laughter and splashing came from the pond and Thea and Iduna laughed as well, Thea gasping a little as they watched.

“Are those the same shorts as - “

“Yes, the wrestling uniforms, yes they are,” Iduna said, reaching for her drink and then frowning at the swirls of purple paint among the ice cubes. She set it back down on the table.

“I know they have the children well in hand, but I feel it important to watch in case they have need of our help,” Thea said, still swirling at the paint which was now well mixed.

“Yes, you never know where snakes are hiding in a pond. Or if one spot is too deep for a child to stand. It’s best we help by watching,” Iduna agreed, picking up the lemonade again and putting the cool glass against her cheek. 

“Sasha loves to swim. And it’s a joy to watch her,” said Thea. She stared at her husband, waist deep in the pond with his back to them. Elias’s dark shoulders were glistening with a sheen of water and were taunt with the effort of raising Sasha above his head. He tossed her across the pond and she shrieked, splashing into the water before Hubert lifted her out and tossed her back. 

“I think your diplomat friend is enjoying his stay,” added Thea, as her eyes stayed on Elias. 

Iduna nodded and switched the lemonade to rest on her other cheek. “I believe so. He’s here for several months to oversee that aquaculture project between Arendelle and Belgium and Denmark.” 

Thea didn’t respond.

Agnarr had Anna on his shoulders and she was pulling his hair like reigns while Elsa tried to float nearby. He turned and Anna waved at her mother, who took a sharp breath at the sight of Agnarr, his stomach muscles tight from the cold of the water that was either natural to this particular spot, or perhaps thrown into relief by their daughter’s cold presence. 

“Enjoying the view, Thea?” Elias said as he pulled himself out of the water and walked, dripping with water, towards the pair of women. Sasha had run ahead of him and was huddling under a towel and giving theatrical shivers.

Elias reached the women and took a few grapes from the display of fruit on the table. He tossed them up before catching them with his mouth, then threw a couple underhand to Sasha when she emerged from the towel and called “My turn! My turn!”

“Elias! I’m painting that fruit!” 

Elias smiled at Thea’s scolding and came closer to her, putting his arms around her waist and nestling into her neck. Thea gasped at the cold and shivered as he laughed. “I thought you were doing a landscape. After all, you have blue paint on your brush!”

Thea shoved at him. “Now I’ll have to change. My dress is soaked.”

Sasha ran back towards the water and Hubert waved her in, arms wide to catch her as she jumped from the edge. 

Elias tightened his hug around his wife. “I can help you change. If you want. I think I’ve had all I can handle of that cold pond.” He pointed towards it with his chin. “Hubert can watch Sasha; she thinks he can throw her farther anyway.” He kissed the back of her neck, where tendrils of hair were escaping her neat bun and she shivered again. “Besides, I think we could both do with some warming up.”

Thea blushed and abandoned the paintbrush to the pot of blue. “Do you mind, Iduna? We can finish later when I have on a new set of clothes.”

“Hmmm?” Iduna’s head turned quickly to look at Thea and then she nodded vaguely, turning back to look at Agnarr as he lifted Anna off of his shoulders and tossed her to Hubert. Hubert caught her with one arm and then spun in the water, Anna and Sasha each holding an arm and laughing. “Yes, your painting is lovely.”

Elias rolled his eyes. “She doesn’t mind, Thea. Nothing will tear her attention from that pond.”

Elias and Thea walked towards the house and Iduna watched as Agnarr lifted Elsa above his head to give her a turn on his shoulders. Mercifully, Elsa didn’t pull at her father’s hair as Anna had, but Iduna did notice Agnarr shivering more than he had been a moment ago. 

Hubert lifted Anna out of the water and threw her to Agnarr, and soon there was continuous splashing and giggling as Anna and Sasha took turns being airborne as they flew between the men. Iduna watched as rivulets of water ran down Agnarr’s back, the sun brightening the freckles on his broad shoulders. 

“Mama! Mama I’m cold!” 

Anna was suddenly tugging at her skirt, holding a towel that was so large she hadn’t been able to wrap it around herself. Iduna unfolded it and wrapped Anna in it, then lifted her up and hugged her tightly. 

“How’s that? Warmer?”

Anna snuggled in tightly against her mother, vibrating with energy. “Yes!”

Anna looked at the canvas. “Mama, why isn’t there a picture there yet? I thought you were painting a picture?”

Iduna looked at her canvas, blank save for a few streaks of light yellow paint. She looked closer. No, not paint. Was that lemonade? She shook her head, smiling to herself.

The remaining swimmers soon exited the pond, Agnarr and Hubert wrapping Elsa and Sasha in towels. They draped some over their own shoulders before walking towards Anna and Iduna.

“Papa! Mama didn’t paint at all!”

Agnarr grinned at Anna and took her from Iduna’s arms. “Oh, is that so? Perhaps she found something too distracting?”

“No, it’s just too hot. Too hot to paint,” Iduna said with a smile, not willing to admit that she had been staring at her husband and not even attempting to paint any of her beautiful surroundings. 

“Well then,” said Agnarr. “I know just the way to cool you off.” 

And with a motion so quick Iduna didn’t even have time to shout in surprise, Agnarr set Anna on the ground and picked up Iduna, jogging with her towards the pond and walking them both into the water until she laughed and gasped “I’m cool now! Plenty cool!”

Their daughters laughed from their towel cocoons, Sasha and Hubert as well, and Iduna thought she could hear the sounds of laughter and a door being closed through the open window where the Calders were staying for the week. 

She reached to Agnarr’s lip and ran her thumb over his moustache, back and forth, feeling the bristley wetness and his smile beneath her fingers. She reached under the water with her other hand and ran her fingers across his stomach. 

She smiled. “You best be ready for my revenge tonight.”

Agnarr lowered himself in the water so they were face to face and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. “I’ll count on it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you TSF for helping with this one and especially for the line "Thea bit on the wooden end of her paintbrush hard enough to leave tooth marks,' it is so perfect. Your beta and brainstorming skills are unmatched!

**Author's Note:**

> You can thank The Spastic Fantastic for setting me in a better direction for this; I was thinking they should be fencing shirtless, but she pointed out that is actually dangerous and suggested wrestling. The most hysterical line is hers too: "And the classics are so neglected." I'm still lol-ing over it!


End file.
